Silver and Shadows
by OnAngelWings
Summary: Berry Stone wants to be a Shadowhunter. The problem? He's a warlock, and warlocks can't use runes. But maybe they can find a way around it. With the help of Anabel Bridgefall and the rest of the Sault Ste. Marie Institute, Berry might be able to pull it off-as long as the Clave approves of this wannabe demon-hunter who happens to be half demon himself. HIATUS
1. The Beginning

**A/N: So this is my second story on Fanfiction and I'm really excited (even though it cements the fact I have no life.) Disclaimer: Cassandra Clare is more amazing than me because she owns the rights to The Mortal Instruments and all I own is this bagel and a blue pillow. Hmmm…. maybe I'm not too bad off…**

**Chapter 1: **

"Testing. Can you hear me, Bel?"

Her voice came in a sharp blast through my earpieces. "Loud and clear, Berry."

I winced-both because of the noise and the use of my nickname. Grinding my teeth, I turned so my back faced the steel wall. "Okay. Ready."

"Did you check the power levels?"

"Bridgefall, I'm not an idiot."

"You're a boy…"

"I take offense at that."

"Fine. We're all ready on this end, so just say the word."

I raised my hands in block formation. "Go."

Through my earbuds, I heard Anabel activate the tester, and I tapped the electrum runes on my hands with my nails, making a sharp clinking sound of metal on metal.

Yes, I did just say metal on metal.

See, I'm not exactly human. Fully, at least. Or Nephilim, or demonic- but you can be assured my alliance is angelic. My name is Tibernius Stone, and I am a warlock. My mark is my hands- a thin metal band around both wrists and silver nails. I don't want to be a warlock- shadowhunter was always my ultimate goal. Ergo, the Seraph Gauntlets- or Runesters, as Anabel aptly named them. Black cloth cuffs with a thumb catch and silver electrum wire runes- this set we were testing now had three runes per-on one, precision, block, and angelic power, the other stamina, strength, and speed. When you tapped them, they activated.

The punching bag came swinging at me, and I roared, smashing my hand into the toughened black leather. It exploded in a flurry of silver sparks. Then I realized that it wasn't just the punching bag exploding-it was the cuff, too.

"AAAAAH!" I grabbed at the cloth and tried to wrench it off, but to no avail. I pounded a fist into the screen I knew Anabel was behind- and was rewarded by a bucket of cold water falling on my head. The glove began to sizzle and sputter out. "Thanks." I said dryly. "I was hoping for, you know, a more conventional way to do it, like deactivation or something. But cold water is good too."

"Anytime, Berry." Anabel appeared behind me dressed in full gear and for some reason a wire mesh mask. I pointed at it.

"It looks like you knew something was going to happen, Bel. Something you're not telling me?"

She avoided my eyes. "No….."

A furious voice boomed over the loudspeaker. "ANABEL BRIDGEFALL, WHERE ARE YOU!"

Anabel swore. "I was supposed to be in training thirty minutes ago." She pressed the com button. "Hey Sara, I'll be up in a second." She looked back at me. "Sorry."

"It's fine."

As she was walking out the door, she muttered, "And I kind of had a feeling that set would explode."

"ANA!" I picked up one of the working ones-force- and slammed my fist into the elevator door just as it closed.

"Ow…."

I lay on my bed, staring up at the ceiling. It was around eight thirty at night- somewhere near three hours since Anabel had disappeared into the dark, unwelcoming depths that is the Shadowhunter training room. I had seen the interior only once- and that was dark and somewhat dismal too. The walls were alternating gray and black, and whatever parts of the room was not filled with either weapons shelves or strategy books were targets. The Shadowhunter practiced here from five to nine, then there was dinner and sleep. There were more randomly scheduled practices in the morning, which interrupted the testing phases that Anabel and I had set up for the Runesters.

There were nine people living in the Sault Ste. Marie Institute, and only seven of them were Shadowhunters. Anabel Bridgefall and her younger sister, Zee( that wasn't her real name- in fact, nobody actually knew Zee's real name but Anabel) who shared Anabel's brown hair but not blue eyes. Then there was Sara Lightwood, the head of the Institute, whose green eyes were almost always narrowed at some poor Nephilim who didn't know any better. Sara was only thirty, and still trained some of the kids. Another was Eric Darkwell, who almost never spoke but was well respected in the practice room. Cat Herondale was blonde, loud, obnoxious, and quick-tempered, a huge contrast to her calm older brother Orion, who had dark red hair and oddly terrifying gold eyes- they both had moved from the New York Institute a year prior to my arrival. Johnny Townsend was the oldest of all of the students at twenty-one, and was almost never at the Sault Ste. Marie Institute anymore-he was part of an elite team touring the country-as Sara put it, 'looking for trouble'. Then there was Asia Ivory, a full warlock from Ohio with purple skin, and finally there was me. Tibernius-Berry- Stone, the warlock who wanted to be a shadowhunter.

"Hey, Berry?"

There was a soft knocking at my door. "Berry… can I come in?"

"Sure. It's open."

Anabel crept in. Her hair was dark with sweat, and her gear hung to her like glue. "I'm sorry about earlier."

"Hey, it's fine." I struggled to sit up. "We can test another set tomorrow, right?"

"Yeah. I wonder what the problem was today, though. They've only blown up like that once."

"At the very beginning." I said, laughing as I remembered that. "By the Angel, Bel, it took me almost a full week to get electrum soot off of my face."

Anabel started laughing too. "That was so funny, and then you had that weird spot on your forehead for, like, weeks afterward when we tried actual seraph blade metal."

I parted the hair about half an inch above my ear. "You mean this?" She started laughing harder at the odd white star mark.

"Berry, that is awesome."

"Not really. When I got my hair cut they were looking at it weird."

Anabel laughed again, then got up. "So, we test more tomorrow?"

"That sounds good."

She began to walk to the door. "Night, Berry."

"Night, Bel."

**A/N:Thank you for reading this! I know some authors put like update predictions on the following A/N but I'm new, ok, I don't know what I'm doing. Just winging it here (: **


	2. Shadows That Are

**A/N Hello there! I had a little more time than I thought, so I can write more! YAY! Disclaimer: Cassandra Clare owns the Mortal Instruments, not me-if I did, Sebastian Morgenstern would not have survived City of Fallen Angels. **

**Chapter 2 **

My alarm rang at five o' clock am, and got through three rounds of ringing until it exploded. Oops. Sara was not going to be happy. That was kind of my power- if I thought about something, and got irritated at it, I could manipulate it. I concentrated on it and thought about bringing the pieces back together. When I opened my eyes, it was new again, set for five the next morning.

Yes, this happens every day.

Groaning, I rolled out of bed and tugged off my shirt (I know, girls. Scream.) Grabbing a fresh one from my closet, I turn to face myself in the mirror. A sixteen-year-old kid with black hair and two random silver streaks, brown eyes and a scowl stared back at me. The scowl deepened as I looked down at my hands. The silver bands had always irritated me, and the metal nails were a huge pain. If I could, I would punch my mother for giving me the mark.

My mother. That was something I guess I would never really know about.

Jake Stone was a U of M professor. He had a degree in math and a minor in mythology. He met a beautiful woman. They had a child, and the man screamed when he saw it. Nevertheless, he dealt with his child being a monster, and even when the woman left him and the child a month later in the December of 2099, he coped. But when the child-me-started showing strange powers-such as with the alarm clock-he left me at the Institute and drove off.

And now here I am. Sixteen in the year 2115. I tried to find my father once-and he wasn't anywhere to be found. I don't like to think I've given up…just that I don't have time to search all day. Or the desire.

There was a sharp rap on my door. "Berry! Open up!"

I tumbled to the door, pulling my shirt down the full way and opening the door. "Hey Bel. You ready? Why are you up so early? I thought I was the only morning person here."

Anabel's blue eyes were alight with excitement. "I solved it. I know how we can get the Runesters to work."

"What?"

She tapped her fingers against the doorframe. "Berry, I'll explain on the way down there, okay?"

"Great. Just let me get my shoes on and I'll be ready." I said, pulling on my black leather testing shoes.

"Hurry up!"

"I'm coming!" I started, walking quickly back to the door. "Okay, tell me. What went wrong and why did it explode?" We began down the hallway.

"Well, it didn't work because of the different type of wire we used-pure electrum instead of aluminelectrum alloy. The electrum wire reacted with the silver-sorry, Berry, but you were the problem." She shot me a apologetic glare. I shrugged it off. A long flight of stairs awaited us.

"Hey, Bel, can we take the elevator?" She didn't say anything, just headed to the silver doors and pressed DOWN.

"So the fire was started because of the reaction, and I figured that maybe the auruelectrum alloy would work, but it still didn't-"

"Auruelectrum?"

"Gold and electrum alloy."

"Oh."

"So then I tried all these other alloys until I found it- kind of on accident." Bel smiled sheepishly. "Don't tell Sara, but I spilled her essence of cinereus on the wire-but that was it!"

Bel faced me, grinning. "I had the argentelectrum there, and the essence of cinereus fused into it-and that was the only one that didn't interact with the warlock bands! Berry, do you get it?"

"Not really."

She went on her tiptoes so the top of her head almost reached my nose. "Silver and shadows, Berry, that's the key."

"Silver and shadows?"

Bel handed me a pair of black gloves with dark blue metal runes. "You've got it."

I looked at the runes. When I tilted them one way, I could see the light bouncing off of them, but the other way-they vanished like into the shadows that are, twinkling in and out of existence.

"Do you want to start?"

Anabel was already behind the screen, tapping commands into the control center. I could half see her-a hazy silhouette behind gray mist.

"Yeah."

"Ready position, then."

It took me a second to get ready. I heard Anabel sigh.

"Berry, you already know the drill."

I put my hands up, noting that there was only one rune on each hand: one was force, and the other was stamina.

"Activate."

I tapped the runes with my nails, hearing the familiar clinking sound, but not seeing the flash of light.

"Bel?"

My voice grew a bit more desperate.

"Bel, something's wrong."

"I'm working on it!" Her voice sounded panicked. The punching bag came at me, and somehow, I knew I could do it.

I swung out with both my fists. Just before my hands hit, the runes glowed silver and a strange warmth began to travel down my arm.

Then the punching bag exploded, and as the debris fell down I saw it vanish into the shadows like the runes.

Anabel burst out of the mesh door. "Berry, what just happened?"

**A/N EEP THIS IS MY FIRST MULTICHAPTER STORY YAY! Please review and thanks for reading!**


	3. Metal And Smoke

**A/N Disclaimer: Cassandra Clare rocks. I don't. Why? I don't own the Mortal Instruments. Are you ready to find out why the punching bag exploded? And why the runes didn't work in a normal way? Let's see in…..**

**Chapter 3: Metal and Smoke**

I stared at the fluttering pieces of ash framing Anabel's face. The mesh door was still swinging. Her mouth was open in a small dark o.

The silver in the force rune faded away to a dull gray, then finally the dark blue it was at first. Suddenly the surge of power that I had before left me. I watched as the stamina rune did the same, and the taste of metal and smoke filled my mouth. I sat down, barely feeling Anabel's hand on my shoulder.

"Berry?"

I couldn't answer.

She shook my arm. "Berry, come on."

"Could we alter them to be a little less draining?"

"Yeah, sure. Hey, do you want to see how it works?"

"Okay."

Bel led me over to the control booth, where a bunch of blue and red LED lights were blinking and a small beep was sounding. She hit a green button with her thumb and the beeping stopped as the LED lights flickered out.

"Here-" Anabel pointed at a monitor "-is where we measure the force. The shadow argentelectrum worked better than any of the other ones as a force enhancer. Here-"she pointed at another screen with a small red line jumping furiously and then restarting-"is where we measure how the stamina rune worked. It went up by an increase of 20% at activation and down by 40% at deactivation."

"Well, I knew that already."

"How?"

"Anabel, I feel like death. And it's six in the morning."

She made a face. "Fine. Do you want to get some sleep? I'll tell Sara why you're not at breakfast."

"Yes." I lurched my way over to the elevator.

"Bye, Berry!"

"Bye, Bel."

I watched Anabel's worried face as it vanished into the silver, and the metal box began to move up.

On floor two, the elevator was stopped by Cat and Eric.

"Hi, Berry."

"Hi, Cat." I sighed inwardly. Yes, Catherine Herondale was the grand-daughter of two of the greatest Shadowhunters of their time. However, at the worst of times she was terribly annoying.

Eric just waved at me. Somehow, I think Asia and I both still scare him- who wouldn't be scared of a warlock? Eric had only come to the Institute a month ago, and I bet he hadn't even seen the Sault Locks yet.

"What are you guys doing up so early?"

"Sara has us in for a important session of training-just got back from a trainer's seminar." Cat flipped her long blonde hair over her shoulder, blue-green eyes sparkling with excitement. Cat loved training. IT was probably the highlight of her whole day. "You?"

"Anabel had me up early for testing again."

Cat held up her hand, nails flashing sparkly pink. "Say no more."

Eric was hiding in a corner fiddling with something in his hand. I didn't ask what. The elevator dinged and he shoved it in a pocket of the long training coat he was wearing. Both he and Cat walked out confidently. The doors shut again and I moved upwards to my room.

The elevator stopped again-this time by Orion. He looked out of breath, and his face was red. As the doors closed, I saw Zee chasing him, a furious expression on her face and brown hair flying. For some unknown reason, she wasn't wearing any shorts-just a gear shirt.

"ORION HERONDALE, YOU ARE DEAD!"

"NOT YET!" yelled Orion as he heaved huge breaths and put his hands on his knees. "Oh, hi, Berry."

"Going to training?"

"Yeah."

"Do I even want to know what you did to Zee?"

Orion shook his head."You really, truly don't." I noted a faint blush in his face and grinned. The elevator beeped and dropped me off. "Bye Orion."

"Bye, Berry."

I heard the metal doors hiss shut. Fumbling around in my pocket, I found my keys and opened my door-I had locked it before Anabel and I left. When the door finally swung open, I felt an overwhelming sense of tiredness-somehow, the runes in the alloy seemed to be using an actual power source-in the case of the stamina rune, sleep. I made my way to my bed, sat down, and promptly collapsed in a heap of pitiful, sweaty, tired warlock-iness.

The taste of metal and smoke stayed in my mouth even in my dreams.

**A/N YES the set worked! Kind of. Okay, maybe I knew that was going to happen…(:**

**Please read and review! Thanks!**


	4. A Darkness Within

**A/N I'm back! Sorry, I was working on The Swap, but now I've got another chapter of this one, ready to go! DISCLAIMER: Cassandra Clare is awesome. I am less than awesome, because I don't have the rights to The Mortal Instruments.**

**Chapter 4: A Darkness Within**

I woke up to the lunch bell, a loud clanging that made any small leftover curtain of sleep basically evaporate. Making my way down the stairs was usually easy, but I was still drained from the session earlier this morning and I nearly fell over almost three times. When I had finally made my way down to the mess hall, everyone else was there; all the trainees and trainer were sweaty and red; Asia and I looked pristine compared to the rest of them.

Anabel wiped sweat off her forehead. "Training was fun today, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, thanks for teaching us that new technique, Sara, it helped a lot." Cat added.

Orion was still panting. "To a certain definition of fun."

Anabel glanced at me, then focused her gaze on Sara. "We got a set to work today, Sara."

"That's nice." The tone of disinterest on her voice couldn't have been plainer. Bel pressed on.

"Yeah. The alloy I used actually activated the runes."

By now everyone at the table was staring at Bel. "Really?" whispered Zee.

Bel nodded. "Sorry, though, Sara, he broke one of the leather bags we use for experiments. I can probably replace it, though."

Finally Sara had looked up. "Anabel Bridgefall, what do you mean you _broke_ a punching bag?"

"It exploded from the alloy I used in the runes."

"Those leather bags are specially treated so that not even a seraph blade can get through them without Hercules behind it. So what alloy might that be?"

Bel suddenly looked nervous, and I realized she hadn't told anyone about the spilled essence of shadows. "Erm….." the rest of her sentence was muttered.

"Louder."

"Imayhaveusedcinereusessenceonelectrumwire."

"Slower." Sara sounded tired of giving directions.

"I may have used cinereus essence on electrum wire."

"WHAT!" Sara thundered. Orion flinched- he was seated next to her. "ANABEL ZAIDA BRIDGEFALL, YOU USED MY SHADOWS WITHOUT TELLING ME!"

Bel shrank back, and for good reason; Sara was tough as nails and punched harder than any of the boys. Eric slowly got up and left, hardly making a sound.

Sara stood, shoving her chair in with the heel of her hand- I swore I heard a crack as part of the wood splintered off, and stormed out of the room.

Cat whistled. "Bel, you and Berry are in _so_ much trouble."

"What did I do?" I protested.

Bel glared at me pointedly, and I conceded. "Okay, maybe I exploded the punching bag, but really? She's the one who had the bright idea to steal Sara's stuff."

"Seriously, Bel? Did you just wake up this morning and think, huh, I don't want to survive until tonight?" Orion snorted.

Sara came back into the room, holding some dark cloth in her hand.

"Anabel, is this the set?"

Bel swallowed. "Yeah."

Sara's face was oddly calm but her voice was dangerously low. "There is a darkness within this, Bridgefall. Some sort of black magic that I have never seen before. And I don't want anyone using these until we identify exactly what is going on with these things, or how you did what you did. Do I make myself clear?"

Anabel and I both muttered assent.

"How will we identify the magic though?" Zee asked, tilting her head to the side.

The expression Sara wore next was grim. "There's only one way to find out- ask a warlock."

I raised my hand. "Uh, what warlock? I have no clue what Bel did."

"Neither do I." Asia chimed in. "We're the only two here, so…."

"An experienced warlock."

"Because there's such an abundance of those in Michigan."

"There isn't. And that's the problem." Sara sighed. "There's only one who's location I know of, and he's not in Michigan by far. Anybody ready for a field trip?"

"YES!" Cat screamed. Orion moved away from her. Bel glanced at me and smiled. "Where to?"

"New York, the Manhattan Institute."

We all got up from the dinner table to pack, and I heard Sara saying something into her phone.

"Hello? Yes. Can you give me the address of a man named Magnus Bane?"

A/N This story's going to the heart and soul of the Mortal Instruments series…..NEW YORK! Sorry, but since its 2115 Clace is dead, so is Alec and all those guys….Please read and review and thanks to madmad01 who has so far been the only one to do so :)


	5. I Could Be Like You

**A/N I'm still alive! AND I HAVE ANOTHER CHAPTER! Why, you may ask? OCTMS ACOUSTIC AAAAHHHHHHH. Ahem. (Sorry I've been freaking out since I found out.) DISCLAIMER: I don't even own Nutella. Do you really think I own The Mortal Instruments?**

**Chapter 5: I Could Be Like You**

My things were already packed away- unlike some people (cough-Anabel-cough) I didn't get distracted by random bits laying around on the floor. I was sitting on my bed when Sara walked in. "Are you ready, Berry?"

"Kind of. How long will we be gone?"

"About three days, no more."

"Where are we going again?"

"New York Institute." Sara turned to leave.

"Oh, and one more question; Who's Magnus Bane?"

She hesitated at the threshold. "The warlock we're going to go see."

"He's experienced?" I made finger quotes around the last word.

Sara began walking down the hall toward Eric and Orion's rooms, calling out as she went, "The man's nearly a thousand years old, Berry, so he had better be."

That's one of the downsides of being a warlock; immortality sucks. Mine hasn't kicked in yet- I'm still aging- but one of these years, that's going to end, and while it may seem like a gift, it's not.

There was a light knock on the door, and Anabel stepped in. "Hi. You packed?"

I gestured to my suitcase, which sat next to me on the bed. "You?"

She turned around, revealing a black backpack made of the same material as her gear. "Nice, huh? I found it in the weapons room. Once I cleaned off the blood and stitched up the knife tears, it actually looked nice, so I thought, 'What the heck?'"

"What the heck indeed. There's still a knife tear. What, was someone doing laceration practice on this thing?"

"Maybe it was used as a shield, who knows." Bel shrugged. "It holds all my stuff and it's super lightweight, so…"

I sighed. "Bel, you said there was blood on this thing?"

"Yeah."

"And you're still using it?"

"Yeah."

Sara walked in the door again.

"It was his idea!" Bel shouted.

"She's the one using the bloody backpack!"I frowned. "Wait, what was my idea?"

"Erm…nothing." Bel was blushing furiously. "Nothing at all. Forget I said anything. Okay?"

Sara shook her head. "What this is about I surely don't know, but we're heading out in five minutes, so be at the portal on time or don't be there at all."

"Okay."

I heard her boots clicking off down the hall, then turned to face Anabel. "What do you mean, it was my idea?"

She pulled something out of her bag. It was a charred, ashy piece of black fabric- with silver electrum runes. "One of the failed ones. I tried to use it, and it worked, remember? And I wanted to have the warlock analyze what made us different- why warlocks can't work what Shadowhunters can, and how I can bridge that gap."

"Only you?" I joked. But the look in Anabel's eyes were deadly serious.

"When we started this project, I remember you saying, 'I could do this, you know. I could be like you.' I want to finish what we started, Berry." She stood. "Because I know you can be like us."

With that, she was gone, and I picked up my bag and went after her, but she was already down the elevator.

Which, of course, meant I had to take the stairs.

One thing I don't like about Shadowhunting- Portals. The inventor of the Five-Dimensional Door must have been a nut job, because the thing was not made for comfort- it was made for speed. Going through one gave you the unpleasant feeling of falling ant then dropped into some place that by some random coincidence happened to be the place you wanted to be. At least, this was my experience; Bel frowned at me when I told her and said that it was actually like just stepping out into the world for her.

We arrived at the New York Institute, Sara leading the way up the stone steps and to the large front doors, where she knocked three times.

A man-obviously a Shadowhunter-opened the door. His bright blue eyes raked us over, and the Marks on his skin stood out sharply. "Magnus, were you expecting company?"

"Yes. Hold the door for a moment, Alec, I'm coming."

"Sara?" The man-Alec-sounded surprised.

"Hello." Sara sounded almost uncomfortable.

Alec stepped back and another person came to the door. At first glance he looked perfectly normal, like anyone walking down the street- but then you began to notice the spiky hair, the glitter, and finally the gold-green cat eyes which were more than a little unnerving.

"Well, if it isn't the trouble makers from the Sault Ste. Marie Institute." Magnus drawled with a smile on his face. "Welcome to New York."

**A/N Due to a request by madmad01 that actually made sense, Alec is still alive- you will find out how in the next chapter. Hey-million dollar question for my reviewers- does anybody get the title reference? I'm like obsessed with that song right now. Thank you all for reviewing, and those who have not, please read and review!**


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